Hearing vs. Listening
“Okay everyone, listen up!” “Listen while I explain what to do.” “Did you listen to the instructions?” “Is everyone listening to me?” “Is anyone listening to me??”
How often have we heard or used these phrases, but do we really understand what the term LISTENING means?
As you can see – they are two very different things. Hearing is passive, while listening is active. Hearing is the sensory detection of a sound. Listening is a complex cognitive function.
“Listening is to hearing what aim is to sight.” -Dr. Alfred Tomatis
Our brain and ear “aim” at sound targets the same way our eyes aim on visual ones. Just because someone has perfect vision, does not mean that they will necessarily have good aim. Likewise, someone may hear well, but have poor listening abilities.
Proper listening requires 3 things:
Intention: The wish or motivation to share information, interest.
Attention: The ability to select the important and relevant sounds.
Emotion: The ability to manage one’s emotions in response to sounds so that it is not disturbing.
In other words, LISTENING is the active functioning of the ear where one intentionally, attentively, and emotionally uses one’s hearing for learning and communication.
For example, if I were to start talking to a child, they might HEAR my voice, but they may not be able to LISTEN properly to what I am saying. This is often the case with teachers and students in classrooms.
Remember the cartoon PEANUTS and the sound of the teacher’s voice? Well, that is actually similar to how some children may perceive it!
This is an example of a child’s inability to focus his or her attention on the important sound in the classroom – the teacher’s voice. It may in fact be drowned out by the sound of a classmate tapping his pencil, pages turning in a book, other students talking or even the humming of florescent lights. They may ALL blend together into one storm of sounds. So if they are unable to do that, then they may lose the intention listen and therefore, communicate. This inability to be intentional and attentive will most likely lead to dis-regulated emotions. Many of us have seen or experienced some the behaviors which result in children from this chain effect.
Some children and even adults are either overly responsive to sound (meltdowns at events?) or under responsive to sounds (needs his or her name called several times before responding).
As an adult, do you have trouble focusing on someone’s voice when you are in a loud, crowded space such as a restaurant? Do you find yourself unable to focus on what someone is saying in meetings? Does this make you feel scattered, overwhelmed or unable to focus and be productive?
All of these scenarios are examples of problems caused by distortions in regards to LISTENING.
The Tomatis® Method is a listening program that uses specially filtered music and our proprietary gating technology to capture the brain’s attention so that it can better analyze incoming sounds. It’s a neuro-auditory program that stimulates the brain and strengthens the connection between the brain and the ear. It’s non-invasive, all natural and even enjoyable for most!
Contact me for a FREE consultation which includes our Tomatis® Evaluation Questionnaire to see if this program is right for your or you loved one.
Stay tuned for more from The Listening Lab as the journey towards helping the world listen better begins.